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Businesses have used PDF format for exchanging data because of its convenience and reliability. However, manual extraction of data from PDFs is a challenging task. Some of the commonly exchanged PDF documents include purchase orders, invoices, financial statements, and valuation reports. In this blog, we discuss how businesses can liberate important business data from PDFs with automated PDF data extraction.

Challenges of PDF Data Extraction

Many businesses find data extraction from PDF documents challenging as they are in an unstructured format. Previously, businesses relied on the IT department to perform this task, increasing the burden on IT personnel, which led to delays in data exchange.

In most cases, the requirement is to extract data not from only one, but a batch of similarly structured files. In this case, manual extraction of data from PDFs is not only time-consuming but can also lead to errors. A data extraction tool can reduce manual effort required and save time by automating extraction from PDF documents.

Since an organization receives PDF documents in different formats such as scanned PDFs, text-based PDFs, and PDF forms, a desirable data extraction solution should be able to deal with all kinds of PDFs.

How ReportMiner makes PDF-based Data Extraction Painless?

Astera offers a data extraction solution for all PDF-based documents. ReportMiner’s automated data extraction features make it an easy to create and deploy end-to-end integration solution for any use case involving data extraction from PDF sources.

Featuring a user-friendly interface, the solution design is based on a visual, drag-and-drop environment and does not require any form of coding or scripting.

Text-based PDFs: ReportMiner can read directly through text-based PDFs and extract the required data based on the designed extraction template.

Scanned or Image-only PDFs: Some of the source documents that companies receive are image-only PDFs such as scanned invoices. ReportMiner’s OCR capability creates a text equivalent of images stored in PDF documents. That point onwards, the extraction process is identical to text-based.

PDF Forms: In some cases, businesses also deal with PDF Forms to collect important information such as customer details. ReportMiner enables extraction of data from these forms and makes critical business data available for further use.

Crucial business data is often trapped in PDF documents. ReportMiner enables businesses to liberate data from different types of PDFs with its extensive data extraction features. Streamlined PDF data extraction, combined with the ability to automate the process, helps businesses save time and gain access to mission-critical information promptly.

If Shakespeare was an IT manager, the famous question ‘To be, or not to be’ would have been ‘To build or to Buy’. In fact, the phenomena of DIY-ing something or buying a commercial product is not only limited to enterprise software. IKEA is running a whole business out of providing utility to ‘build proponents’ and DIY enthusiasts. While building furniture can be fun, building an enterprise level software – not so much.

Like any other business decision, the decision to either build a software or to buy a commercial product is significantly influenced by total cost of the approach and return on investments. If you’re facing a similar dilemma, the table below summarizes the prospects and consequences of both the approaches.

Metrics and KPIs

Build Approach

Buy Approach

Cost of deployment

Hiring a team of developers, designers, programmers to build the solution

License fee of the product and deployment costs

Time to market

– Time to develop the product

– Time for performing QA analysis

– Time to fix any patches or bugs found

– Time to deploy the solution

– Product development, QA analysis and patch fixes are already taken care of by the solution provider. Therefore, solution can directly be deployed.

– Time to configure and install the product.

Ongoing maintenance and support costs

A dedicated team of IT professionals should be on-board to help with ongoing product support and maintenance

Updates, maintenance and customer support are handled by the solution provider. However, the solution provider might charge a fee for providing these services

Learning curve

A steep learning curve is usually associated with the developed product

Commercial products are developed to be used by a wide range of audience with varying levels of technical skills therefore, in most cases these solutions are designed to be more intuitive and user-friendly

When is ‘Building’ the right approach?

Building a software is going to be beneficial for your business if:

The software is going to give you sustainable competitive advantage

No other available solution can meet your business needs

The end-points from where your business collects data are not volatile or prone to frequent changes

You have substantial resources to cover the costs associated with building and maintaining the software

When is ‘Buying’ the right approach?

You should opt for buying a commercial software if:

Building a software is not the core of your business and is not going to yield you any competitive advantage

You have limited resources and you would rather invest them in improving your core business activities

There are solutions available that address the challenges your business is facing

You are looking for a quick solution that can be immediately deployed

IT manager at Brickell Bank, formerly known as Espirito Santo Bank, faced challenges in migrating broker data from MS Access database to IBM mainframe data warehouse. Learn more about the approach he opted for and other factors that influence build vs buy decision by downloading the free white paper.

Effective business intelligence demands proper data collection and integration processes. Modern businesses receive data in different formats from a variety of communication protocols, when efficient collaboration and tracking of data exchanges are more important than ever before.

Partner Data Exchange – Centerprise Data Integration Software

As data increases, the maintenance and management of multiple files from disparate sources takes its toll on IT teams. File based partner data exchanges need to be fast, reliable, and secure for transfers, especially on large-scale operations. Manual data entry and file exchange over channels like email aren’t sufficient anymore. Businesses need a centralized platform where customers, partners, suppliers, and employees can upload data files, ensure compliance, and track file status.

Enter the new Astera Cloud Customer Portal.

Key features include:

Centralized Uploading

Partners upload data files directly on the portal URL using their unique login credentials. Validation and cleansing take place automatically on the backend Centerprise server using custom integration flows. A response file is generated at the end for both the admin and users.

File Tracking

The Customer Portal comes with inherent file tracking: all involved remain up-to-date on file statuses in real-time via the Dashboard. For unsuccessful uploads, the response file contains error codes and explanations. Status emails can also be configured for all types of accounts. This ensures all necessary files are uploaded correctly after data validation, allowing the final workflow to run as scheduled.

Security

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and file encryption are supported on the Customer Portal. Uploaded encrypted files are automatically decrypted, processed, and then re-encrypted by Centerprise to be sent back.

Scalability

The Customer Portal is built to handle unlimited data volume and borrows on Centerprise’s powerful scalability. Cloud servers can also be added for reliable load balancing.

White Label Capability

Astera Cloud’s Customer Portal is customizable, with the ability to use your company logo and domain name. Get all the functionality of Centerprise while maintaining brand cohesion.

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For a live demo and information on pricing for our partner data exchange and integration solution, call us at +1 888-772-7837 or email us at sales@astera.com

Astera Software’s Centerprise Data Integrator is an easy-to-use and robust data integration tool which can be used for ETL tasks, data quality and profiling. Centerprise seamlessly integrates with various data visualization and reporting tools to create a full-stack Business Intelligence process.

What is BI Software?

BI software is typically designed to analyze, transform and prepare data for reporting. BI tools use data which has been previously stored and which may or may not be stored in a data warehouse/data mart. BI tools enable users to transform raw data into legible information that enables businesses to make better decisions, which in turn allows for growth and increased revenue.

Centerprise is a complete data integration solution which can be used as a standalone product or can be integrated with other BI tools such as prediction analysis and data visualization tools to achieve a complete data mining and analytics process.

Nowadays, enterprise software is used almost everywhere and at different levels within organizations. It is the lifeblood of most IT departments. One dilemma that tech company leaders face is whether to build a business solution (i.e. custom software) from scratch or to buy commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) products and mold them according to business requirements.

Some key points when deciding whether to buy or build software are:

The core business requirements, the scope of the problem in question, and the how complex the solution should be in order to fit the business needs and size

Available resources and skills in terms of people, software, hardware, tools, etc. capable of building, maintaining, and supporting the business solution

The amount of time required to develop the solution in-house

Companies that decide to build their own solution tend to overlook issues and expenses, such as:

Replacing existing technology, adding features and functionality to a legacy system is extremely tough and a complete reengineering and rebuilding of business solutions may be needed

A learning curve always comes with building a new software or recruiting additional people with specific skills to build in-house solutions

One of the biggest software building failure stories is the Bank of America’s MasterNet case study. According to “The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model: Principles and Practices for Successful Systems and Software” by Barry Boehm, Jo Ann Lane, Supannika Koolmanojwong, and Richard Turner:

“In the 1950s and 1960s, Bank of America (BofA) was the leading pioneer in banking automation with its electronic check processing capability. Subsequent BofA leaders had other interests, allowing BofA’s banking automation capabilities to degrade over time. In 1981, BofA’s new president, Sam Armacost, had an agenda to regain its automation leadership by “leapfrogging into the 1990s.” After an in-house effort that spent $6 million and failed to develop a workable trust management system, Armacost appointed a new executive vice president of the trust management department, Clyde Claus, with the charge of either modernizing the department or discontinuing it.

“…[However,] system problems continued…[and] clients began dropping off, with BofA’s base dwindling from 800 to 700 accounts and from $38 billion to $34 billion in institutional assets.… Eventually, in May 1988, BofA transferred its whole trust business to other banks, after an overall expenditure of $80 million and more than four years of project effort. The previous president, Tom Clausen, replaced Armacost in late 1986, and Claus resigned in October 1987.”

Advantages abound in buying COTS products and then customizing them. Some of the pros of buying software are:

Lower up-front costs

Clear and definite processes available for customization

Ready-made solutions available immediately

Less time has to be spent on customization and getting a product into the market

Readily available customer support

Although buying software may cost more than building a solution at the outset, it does provide better ROI over the long term.

Astera Software provides powerful, commercial, off-the shelf data extraction, integration and processing software including ETL tools which can be easily integrated and adapted by enterprises and companies to reduce time and effort required to perform data extracting and processing tasks and in turn improve revenue.

Some of Astera’s available software include:

Centerprise Data Integrator delivers a powerful, scalable, high-performance, and affordable integration platform that is easy to use and cost friendly. It is robust enough to overcome even the biggest and most complex data integration challenges. A complete data integration solution, Centerprise includes data integration, data transformation, data quality, and data profiling in a flexible environment that enables users to choose from multiple integration scenarios. It comes with job scheduling and orchestration for automatic scheduling, file drop events, and API calls.

ReportMiner enables you to extract business data from PDF, TXT, XLXS, XLS, etc. formats. Data can be integrated into the main database system and used in electronic applications for business operations and business intelligence. ReportMiner provides an easy to use interface and helps the user to identify desired data, build the data extraction logic, and save the extracted data in a number of destinations. The best part about this product is that it can be used efficiently by business users with no technical background, but is robust enough for IT professionals.

EDIConnect is a complete solution for handing EDI documents such as EDI 834 and 837. EDIConnect offers a user friendly and intuitive user interface to accurately and efficiently handle bi-directional EDI data integration. It is scalable and powerful enough to fulfill entire EDI transaction processes.

Astera Software also provides training and support. Customers can learn more about the products, view the demo, and reduce the learning curve. In conclusion, Astera Software provides easy to use, robust and manageable off-the shelf products to support companies and provide them with powerful data mapping, transformation and processing tools that are not only budget-friendly but also have a sizable advantage over building in-house business solutions.

In October, we went over two healthcare EDI transactions: EDI 834 and 837. This week, we’ll take a look at two more healthcare facets of EDIConnect: the ability to handle EMRs and compliance with HL7.

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are electronic records generated and maintained by hospitals and healthcare organizations. They are a vast improvement over paper records. They allow more than one person to use a patient’s chart, are better organized, eliminate illegible handwriting, and allow storage of more information.

The demand for healthcare systems with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) interfaces is rising. This increase is due to many factors, including the growing adoption of EMR systems and emerging clinical healthcare data standards such as HL7.

Health Level-7

Health Level-7(HL7) refers to a set of international standards for software applications used by healthcare providers for clinical and administrative transaction data. The HL7 standards are produced by the Health Level Seven International, an international standards organization, and are adopted by other standards issuing bodies such as American National Standards Institute and International Organization for Standardization.

HL7 International specifies a number of flexible standards, rules, and procedures for healthcare systems used by hospitals and other healthcare provider organizations to communicate with each other. This helps information to be shared and processed in a uniform and consistent manner and allow hospitals and healthcare organizations to easily share clinical information.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) format also plays a very important role with EMR files and records. It helps to share clinical and other administrative data and medical records across different healthcare systems as well as individuals. Patients can also access their medical records through internet, allowing them to stay well-informed about their health status and ongoing medical treatments.

EDIConnect

Astera Software provides a complete solution for handing documents such as EMR and many others such EDI documents. EDIConnect offers a user friendly and intuitive user interface to accurately and efficiently handle bi-directional EDI data integration. It is scalable and powerful enough to fulfill entire EDI transaction processes.

EDIConnect Benefits:

Handles electronic medical records and HL7 documents.

Powerful and scalable

Fast, comprehensive and accurate data exchange

Easy to use graphical interface for both technical and business users.

So many of you reviewed our products, and now we have our Apple Watch Series 2 winner! Thank you all for writing in, and congratulations to Michael Cook from the General Council on Finance and Administration.

It’s the holiday season, and we’re giving our wonderful customers the chance to win something spectacular! We’ll give you a hint as to what it is: it’s new and shiny and rhymes with, “Snapple Swatch.”

If you use ReportMiner or Centerprise and give us a verified review on G2Crowd, we’ll give you a present back: a $25 Amazon gift card! In addition, you’ll be entered into a raffle to win an Apple Watch Series 2.

Many documents have newspaper-style formatting, which contains more than one column with a repeating pattern of records. As a result, the layout is more complex than a single-column document, and extracting useful information can pose a challenge.

ReportMiner 7 now provides a Multi-Column layout option to handle documents with multiple columns. In the past, if documents had more than one column with a repeating pattern, it would be very difficult to extract information from all the columns in a clean and efficient manner. This was due to the way in which the software looks for information: it scans the data in horizontal sweeps. With the latest version of ReportMiner, you can now process your multi-column documents within minutes for perfectly editable and searchable data.

Here’s how to use ReportMiner 7’s Multi-Column feature:

First, load your multi-column document in ReportMiner.

Add a Data Region to create matching patterns.

In this case, we’ll create a matching pattern for Names and Phone Numbers in the document.

Next, add Data Fields for Names and Phone Numbers in the document.

When previewed, the data is displayed accurately in a list format.

As seen in the screenshot below, a blank bar appears as soon as you check off the Multi-Column option in the Data Region. Click on the bar and a black dotted vertical line will appear indicating a column boundary. If a line is placed incorrectly, click on it within the bar to remove it and try again. Make sure that the line is flush with the left side of the first column of characters in your document.

Since there are three columns in the sample document, another column boundary is added just before the start of the second column. All records in both columns have now been successfully identified.

Preview your data and export it to a destination file type of your choice with easy access to the extracted information.

From one column to multiple columns, Astera can extract information with ease. Thanks to ReportMiner7, your data is more accessible than ever before.